Apartment Above the Boards, Tuesday Morning

[intraspective]

Like Zack, Ino hadn't slept much after they'd sent Kueng home. There was a lot to think about and--in her case--a lot to read, look at, and watch. Tseng, Kueng's Tseng, had come through for her with every little bit of information he could scrape up that might change the future.

She'd wanted to go through it herself, first, before sending off copies to both the Tseng in her timeline (even in her head, she wasn't sure about calling him 'her' Tseng) and to Reno, with an email explaining what this information was and how she'd gotten it.

Then she settled in to review the information again.

Maybe it was morbid to watch herself die, but the fact she went out laughing, made her smile.

[Late post is late, but open, sure~]

Comments

[raspberryturk]

Reno snorted at that.

Yeah, that don't surprise me any.

Sephrioth killed one of his Rookies. There was no way he'd take that with a grain of salt.

There was a reason he'd been willing to drop the Sector Seven plate to get to AVALANCHE, after all.

[intraspective]

Ino considered that answer for a moment, quietly ruminating on it.

Then she called him.

[raspberryturk]

"Yo."

There was no hesitation before Reno answered the phone. No nerving himself up to it.

Now didn't seem like the time.

[intraspective]

"You sayin' you think you went after Sephiroth to, what, avenge me?"

Yeah, Ino wasn't bothering with hellos.

[raspberryturk]

"I'm sayin' nobody fucks with my Rookies," Reno said evenly.

He didn't have much left in his life.

The only reason he'd walked away from his own reality to go to Zack's was Ino.

So, yes. That was exactly what he was saying.

[intraspective]

Ino... honestly wasn't sure what even to make of that. It was one thing to know she was loved and it was another thing to know.

It made her throat feel tight and scratchy. Made it want to cry.

"I ain't going to die," she said quietly. "It ain't going to happen."

[raspberryturk]

"I know," Reno said, his voice a little too even. That sort of empty even that it sometimes took when he was trying like hell to keep from sounding like practically anything else. "I know, Rookie. We aren't gonna let it, zoto."

[intraspective]

"Reno..."

She didn't even know what to say. She'd never heard him sound like that. So empty.

[raspberryturk]

She had lucked out, maybe, missing the darkest points in his life. Hearing about the plate years down the road, never having to see the wreck it had left him, hiding in Wutai, offering to throw down with AVALANCHE if, you know, they wanted to, whatever, his heart wasn't even in it anymore.

The plate had come down for nothing.

Ino was in danger of dying for much the same.

"We aren't gonna let it," he said again.

He didn't have much else left.

[intraspective]

Yeah, Ino was starting to think she’d made a mistake in sending him that video. Maybe she should have just—held that back. She hadn’t thought Reno would react like this.

“We won’t,” she agreed, because hell no, she wasn’t planning on dying. “Reno, you don’t got to worry ‘bout me. I’m on the island and I’m fine. Anything comes after me here that I can’t handle and they’re going to get Zack all up in their business.”

It wasn’t what she wanted to say, but it was also true.

[raspberryturk]

Reno gave a little snort at that, finding a wall to lean back against while he mulled that over.

"And you're plannin' on never comin' back, are you?"

She was a Turk. She wasn't wired that way.

[intraspective]

“Ain’t never said that,” she said, since… yeah. “I know. And I also know I ain’t in the safest job. Reno, I ain’t going to get killed by Sephiroth but there ain’t no sayin’ I’m going to live a long and happy life either. Turks don’t tend to do that.”

And it upset her, to think he’d get himself killed if she died on a job.

[raspberryturk]

"I know," Reno said, letting that flat emptiness in his voice break, letting at least a little bit of emotion show when he spoe. "Fuck, Rookie, I know. I'm the one that's seen it happen, remember? Seen it more'n any of the green kids they have runnin' around here. Poured one out and moved on and you don't gotta lecture me on that shit because gods help me I know."

He blew out a breath and stared up at Midgar's sickly green sky.

"I ain't expectin' you to live forever. But everything AVALANCHE didn't take, Sephiroth did."

What did she expect him to do? Roll over and take that? Just move on? Had they met?

[intraspective]

They'd met a time or two.

“I ain’t tryin’ to lecture you,” she said, her voice tightly controlled. “But if I’m important to you then you’re important to me and I ain’t keen on hearin’ you’ll be dying if I kick the bucket due to something. I ain’t plannin’ on it but you know how plans go.”

She took a breath.

“Showin’ you that video weren’t meant to rip you up. It weren’t. Tellin’ you one of the futures weren’t meant to do that either. We’re going to fix it so don’t you dare go fallin’ to pieces before we even get started.”

[raspberryturk]

"You don't get it," Reno muttered, pulling his lighter from his pocket. "I gotta have this right now. I don't take it and I end up staring at footage of that silver-haired bastard cutting you down, not her, you, I'm gonna pull the same shit."

And now he was patting his other pocket down for his smokes. He scowled.

"Let me get this out of my system while it doesn't fucking matter so that I don't do something stupid when it does."

[intraspective]

“I’ll tell Rude on you,” she threatened. She was going to text him anyway, just watch her, Reno. “You ain’t serious that freakin’ out now would keep you from doing stupid shit later. It wouldn’t for me. Do I need to show up so you know I’m fine right now?”

[raspberryturk]

Reno fell silent at that. There was the faint sound of a lighter being sparked. Another silence. An exhale.

He watched the smoke curl up to join all the rest. All of Midgar's sky, just ugly, sickly smoke.

"I dunno," he drawled. "Do you?"

Gods, it was an ugly night.

[intraspective]

Both inside and outside?

“Maybe I ought to,” she snapped. “What do you think?”

[raspberryturk]

Inside and outside. Everywhere.

Reno sighed.

"You don't need to. I'm already over it."

He was not. But that cold hollowness was back in his voice and he was walking again, his footsteps silent in Midgar's streets.

[intraspective]

She didn't believe that for a hot minute.

"If you're sure," she said dubiously, even as she flipped tabs and began booking a portal. "I mean, there's still a lot of time between that and now."

[raspberryturk]

Reno didn't believe he'd sold it, either.

"Plenty of time," he agreed. He turned down another alley, started making his way toward the train station. Down to the slums. The monsters were better down there. "Time to work our way up to the challenge."

[intraspective]

“And it’s gonna be a big challenge,” she noted, as she booked her portal. “There’s tons to do. But, hey, Zack wants me for something—I’ll talk to you later, okay? You sure you’re good?”

She only had ten minutes to make her portal.

[raspberryturk]

"Yeah, Rookie," Reno said, and now the sound of feet slapping pavement could probably be heard. "I'm good."

The sound of an incoming train could probably be heard. Reno didn't much care. She'd find him one way or another if she wanted to.

Let her.

[intraspective]

It was perhaps twenty minutes later, that Ino was down amongst the lower city herself, her pale blonde hair a beacon in the gloom of Midgar’s slums. It was an ugly, smoky night but Ino loved it fiercely.

It wasn't anything like the green, clean place she'd grown up in but Midgar was her home.

When she found him, he was fighting monsters. Ino wasn’t particularly surprised.

She sat down on the debilitated roof of one ramshackle house, legs dangling over the edge, and watched him. Sure, she could help, but in watching him, she could tell just how not okay he was.

[raspberryturk]

He hadn't used a potion since he'd started. There was sweat on his brow, the tie holding his hair back had broken and his suit was torn. It was anybody's best guess whose blood that was, but his fighting was sloppy tonight, he didn't bother dodging incoming attacks. Who cared? Wasn't like the shitty little things lurking in Midgar's underbelly could do him any real harm. He just wanted to fucking feel it.

The hound he was facing snarled, and he snarled back, rushing forward to break the damn thing's face in with his EMR. The crunching sound it made was the most satisfying one he'd heard tonight.

It was probably no surprise at all which sector he'd followed the tracks to.